If all goes as expected, just about the time you’re opening this blog I should be walking into my summer cottage in Chautauqua, NY, to get ready for the upcoming season. I’m sure I’ll be tired from a long trip, and I’m not sure my internet will be on. Today just happens to be Cinco de Mayo.

I’ve confessed before, but I’ll confess again. I love newspapers. This apparently makes me desperately old-fashioned. But while I also check newspaper articles online, nothing compares to sitting down in the morning with the real thing and going through it page by page. I miss the little things on the internet.

I’m not Catholic, but I find Pope Francis to be an inspiring religious leader and a man I respect. I especially admire that he doesn’t just speak words of compassion and justice, but he lives out those words in his everyday life. He recently spoke about these 10 Tips To Happiness, which speak to people of all faiths or none:

If you’re new to The Writing Process 2015, these posts are a chance to share my journey through my latest novel, starting right at ground zero. Today let’s talk about finding the right details for your story.

We’re about to pull our biannual house switcheroo. This means that we are entertaining a steady stream of visitors and phone calls.

I’ve lived in Florida now for two and a half years. Although I started life here, too, so Florida immediately felt like home again.

What do you look for when you choose a new home? Price, of course, but beyond that? In the past we’ve chosen by job and school district, but this time with no children left at home and my husband retired we had so many options.

With all the tension around the killing of Freddie Gray by the police and the ensuing riots in Baltimore, I gravitated to these words by John Kennedy to remind me that tolerance is an active and compassionate decision to accept people for who they are and not to judge them based on what others believe.